Santa Maria

Santa is 66 years old and lives in the city of Playas. Her house is made of reeds and she has electricity. She buys water from water trucks. Most of the streets in the area are unpaved and without drains.

Santa began her business 5 years ago with a little store, continuing to maintain it, but with her previous loan she began raising pigs. She buys them when they are little and she begins to raise them later selling them by the pound because in this way she obtains higher earnings; she is planning to continuing raising them for wholesale. The work of cleaning, feeding and caring for them is done alone. The cost of the animals range from $150 for the largest and $80 for the smallest. Santa is asking for this loan in order to buy pigs to raise and partly to buy products for her store.

Her future goal is to be able to install on her property a large pigsty so that they are not exposed to wind and weather.

Additional Information

About Banco D-MIRO

Banco D-MIRO is a microfinance institution that serves the most vulnerable sectors of Ecuador’s economy. It offers very small loan sizes without requiring collateral, expanding access to borrowers who would not otherwise be able to access capital to start and grow their own businesses. It also specifically targets borrowers who are excluded from formal financial systems due to race, ethnicity, gender, disability or illness.